A year has passed since then. In case you're wondering, I know that a day has passed when twilight is over and night has come and gone, and when it's twilight again. And today, the twilight I wake up and see is exactly 365th. 

　One year. It really flew by. I've wandered around a lot of places since then. I've hunted and devoured demons to survive. I carry around a canteen of water made from trees and other materials magically joined together. He also smoked the meat of demons so that it could be preserved, and so on. Despite the fact that I had gained that much vitality, I never settled down anywhere. 

　I kept moving. It was because I wanted to return to the Boundary City again. I want to become a great antimagician again. That's my driving force now. But the structure of the twilight world is still unknown to me even after a year. There are endless forests and wildernesses. And there was something like an underground canal. And the wreckage of a village. A place where people were thought to have lived. And there were also demons that spoke a language. It wasn't a demon, it was a goblin among the demon race, but it suddenly attacked me when it saw me. 

''Don't........................Oh, we were wrong. 

"...if I said that, would you guys listen to me? 

Yes of course! 

You're lying. You should have slaughtered me. Not like this. 

.........gag! 

　I stab the knife in my hand. However, I can't reach the goblin's brain from this place. The illusion magic I used a year ago. I've been growing my magic around that one. And the proper name of the magic I'm using now is "Invisible". It not only fixes invisible objects in this world, it can also erase them at will. The Invisible Blade that I'm using now is the Invisible Blade that I applied to my knife. I can't deal with too much change right now, but this is the only one I can use now on the same level as breathing. 

　Then, I gathered the swarm of attacking goblins into one place with the Invisible Wall, and then proceeded to cut off their heads one by one with the Invisible Sword Invisible Blade. 

　In the past year, I've learned a lot. This twilight world is a world of the weak and the strong. The strong live and the weak die. That was the absolute rule. I think I've become reasonably strong in this world. But there was an upside. Six months ago I saw a dragon, and I saw a spider that was over 10 meters tall. They were all stronger than me, I was sure of it. So I didn't fight them. I just got by quietly and tried to escape. 

　And as I came to understand the rules of this world to some extent, I stopped showing any mercy to those weaker than me. Maybe someday I will be like this. My body seemed to constrict with fear at the thought of it. I still have the fear. Just because I lived for a year doesn't guarantee that I'll be alive tomorrow. So I killed them. I killed them all. If you show mercy to them, you might be next in line. 

　So I kept killing out of fear. I killed them to survive and return to the Citadel. 

''This, you demon ah! 

　I thought I was trapped in the walls of the Invisible, but apparently there were a few leaks, and five goblins are attacking me with daggers raised. 

　But with that level of skill, I can't kill them now. 

''.........'' 

　The air was exhaled from their lungs in one go, and in the next moment, the heads of all five goblins were flying in the air. Their expressions were as if they didn't know how they had been decapitated. I had mastered not only the Invisible, but also the new inertia control magic. Inertia is a property that tries to keep repeating the same motion unless an external force is applied, in other words, it is impossible to stop suddenly. It is forcibly controlled by magic. 

　Normally, if you swing a sword, it will flow with its momentum. Since the act of beheading a person's head also requires a certain amount of power, the sword will naturally flow with more momentum. But the sword stops flowing after the beheading stage. From there, he cuts off the head of the next one, and then continues in the same way. 

　In order to live, he needed to eliminate waste. For this reason, he trained and acquired the magic of inertial control to thoroughly eliminate the waste of sword fights. It was my life and death that was at stake. I practiced diligently, and it took me a year to finally master it. I was a little relieved to see that I could already use it at a real-world level. 

　And when I tuck the knife into my breast pocket, I can't help but talk to the person I'm talking to. Perhaps he was hungry to talk to someone. 

'You had better think twice about who you're going to fight with. I mean........are you already dead? 

　Then I strip off what the goblins were wearing and just leave. It wasn't pleasant. After all, I didn't seem to be broken enough to truly enjoy killing. But, after all, people get used to it. Even if (even if) they are able to communicate with someone who can communicate with them, they can kill them without any emotion. 

　I brushed back my hair, which had grown close to my chest, and walked on, wondering where I should go next. 

　◇ 

A dungeon?　I've heard the rumors, but... 

　Further north, there was a hole that led to a large underground. This could be the dungeon that was rumored in the Boundary City as well. The inside is a den of demons, but there are dazzling treasures in the deepest part... I don't believe in such eyebrow-raising stories, but I wanted to go there. 

　And a dungeon is, in other words, a labyrinth. In other words, you could get lost and not be able to come back. 

　But my curiosity got the better of me, and I went on. 

　Don't worry, if you feel in trouble, just go back. 

　I would later learn that this was just hubris. 

'It's dim...' 

　When I walked in, the air was cold. And for some reason there was also a light on, which gave me the feeling that someone was there. No, technically speaking, it wasn't someone, it was probably something... but I still sensed the presence of something. 

'A human! 

Humans, humans! 

Hey, here come the humans! 

　Moving further back, a large number of goblins were there. The goblins that I met outside earlier came out of here.......I don't even understand the ecology of the demon race.......and as I was thinking about this, the goblins started to grin and smile. 

''Human meat, it's been a long time........'' 

Ahhh.........human meat is delicious. This will save you the trouble of kidnapping them. 

"Xishishishish!　Human, eat! 

　Each one of them was dancing madly. As I watched them with interest, there were already a large number of goblins behind them. They were probably hiding in the middle of the road. 

''Dying eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!　Human!!!!!! 

　Taking that voice as a cue, a large number of goblins, about 100 or so, rushed in in large numbers. 

 

　I regret it now. In this small space, can I use the Invisible Invisible effectively?　Although the Invisible Blade 《Invisible Blade》 is good because the length of the sword blade can be changed at will, I'm still not used to group combat. Up until now, I created my own situations so that I could win without fail. 

　But now, it's different. Right now, I'm at an overwhelming disadvantage. Geographically, escape is not an option. Without a doubt, these guys that inhabit this place know better than me how to escape. 

''.........Invisible Sword, Invisible Blade. 

　At will, he activates his magic. I take out a knife from my breast pocket and extend the blade to any length of it. 

''Haaaaah!!!!! 

　And then, a flash. With the current attack, he decapitated three goblins at once. But perhaps because the goblins here are well-trained, they are not frightened. The goblins behind us are generating a wall with Invisible 《Invisible》 to prevent them from coming towards us. We can hear the sound of thumping and banging on the invisible wall from behind, but right now we should focus on the frontal battle. 

''Humans, you're strong! 

Strong man, yummy! 

Yum, yum! 

　Maybe it's because I was too focused on what was in front of me, but I'm slow to react to the glittering red object from further back. 

''d*mn!　Arrows! 

　Yes, it was a fire arrow that flew at me. He barely twisted his body to avoid it, but was hit in his left arm. The sensation of being slowly burned is accompanied by considerable pain. 

''Gu, goooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo! 

　Then I pull out the arrow that was stuck in it as hard as I can. I discard the missing arrow on the spot and activate my healing magic to stop the blood dripping from dripping. 

''Still!'' 

No, do it! 

　This demon race called goblins. They're not to be underestimated. If you look at each individual, they're not much. But they're well-controlled. The timing of their attacks and their positioning to take advantage of the terrain are also very precise. 

　They are not as intelligent as humans. I should have discarded my assumption that they would be fine. I had let my guard down. Surviving for a year in this twilight had become a useless conceit. Wrong. I had only lived for one year. But these guys should have already been in the twilight for many years, or even decades if they are not good enough. This is a world of the weak and the strong. Unlike humans, killing each other is normal even for the same species. 

　In other words, we are living in a constant state of battle. 

　When I realized again that I was living in such a world, I took a deep breath as hard as I could. 

 

　And then another flash. From there, I used inertial control magic and another flash. Already my movements never stop. Accurately, I cut off the head from the one nearest me. There's no aftermath, there's no play. The moment he cuts off my head, he stops his inertia and moves on to the next attack. It's as if it's a dance, and he does it with precision. 

　That's right. This is what it means to live in the world of dusk. 

 

　It's done. In terms of battle time, it would be less than an hour. But he was even more powerful than that. They are stronger than any demon or demon race I've ever encountered. 

　And once again, I was made painfully aware of the harshness of this world.